


Knight-kun and the Wrong Damn Princess

by Raptorik



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-08
Updated: 2016-04-08
Packaged: 2018-06-01 00:10:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6493312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raptorik/pseuds/Raptorik
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arc V 30 Day Challenge, prompt 3: Fairytale - in which Yuuya never found Yuzu on the docks back in episode 7.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Knight-kun and the Wrong Damn Princess

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for any lapses in tense; I haven't written in ages, and it probably shows. Thanks for bearing with me!

There were cinders dancing to the floor all around her.

It was suiting, really, Yuuto thought. Ruri, one of his two best friends, had won her freedom from those who had taken her away. She had never stopped fighting back, just like the Resistance back home, as graceful and fierce as a phoenix rising from the ash to begin anew.

His heart felt as if it could burst with pride as he turned to face her at long last, and he smiled for the first time in ages.

That exact moment was when he realized there was no possible way this girl could be Ruri. His smile died immediately.

Ruri's eyes were a violent sunset magenta that shone brilliantly at the cusp of darkness, burning with determination and hope when all else had seemed lost in the bleak landscape that was their home. This girl's eyes were blue – too calm, too wide, too pure, as serene as the midday sky or the sparkling ocean that surrounded her peaceful hometown.

And Ruri would never look at him like that, with confusion and fear so openly displayed on her face.

Yuuto was lost for words, faltering when he should have been at his very best. He was supposed to be the one with a solid plan, the one to whom Shun would turn when his terrible ideas backfired in his face. But here he was, and here... Here _she_ was. Whoever she was.

"Yuuya," the girl repeated, unable to hide the wavering in her voice. "Wh-what's going on? Why are you dressed like that?" She stared him up and down, from his shabby boots to his oversized cloak and all the way up to his greasy, unkempt hair and the goggles that held his bangs down in his face. And he couldn't do anything but stare back, still unable to speak, not knowing if he _should_ say anything.

There was recognition in her eyes, but it seemed as misplaced as his own. "Those cards – where did you _get_ those? There's no way you've been sneaking into LDS. S-so how did you know how to..."

In that moment, their gazes met, and she seemed to lose her voice as quickly as he had. They stood there for a long moment, unable to look away, so utterly _lost_ that they wouldn't know what to do if they _did_ find something else to look at.

Finally, after the shouts of the LDS students he'd interrogated faded into the distant night, he gathered up the resolve that had kept him going for so long. "I believe I've made a mistake," he said, nearly sickened by the hollow sound of his own voice. "Your name – what is it?"

Realization dawned on her face in an instant. "You're not Yuuya... are you?"

He weighed his options, and there really wasn't a reason to keep his identity a secret from a complete stranger, was there? "No. My name is Yuuto."

"Yuuto," she repeated, slowly, almost thoughtfully. "No, you don't... you don't sound anything like him. I-I'm sorry, it's just..."

"I mistook you for someone else." He interrupted her, catching her off guard.

"Yeah, that's it," she confirmed.

"No, I mean... _I_ thought _you_ were someone else," he said, rectifying the mistake. "You just... you look -"

"Exactly like my friend." She was the one to interrupt that time, gazing at him now with a sense of awe and understanding that he wasn't entirely sure he shared. But maybe it did make sense, in a weird way.

"Yeah," was all he could offer.

The girl stepped closer, finally breaking eye contact to give him another once-over. "You're... even the same height, if those boots didn't have such high heels. This is _weird_."

That was a good word to summarize how he felt. He couldn't find his words again, though, so he settled for letting her stare and prod at him, somehow unable to fend off her curiosity. He couldn't bring himself to stop her. A part of him didn't want to scare her; seeing fear on features identical to Ruri's would likely kill him at this point.

"I guess your friend must have gotten into some trouble with those LDS guys," she mused as she held the tattered edge of his mantle in her hands. "They're a bunch of lousy, worthless thugs, but I didn't think they'd go so far as... oh, well, I guess they did take _me_ hostage a few days ago, but I didn't think it was _that_ serious. You seem pretty worried, though, barging in here like that. Is everything all right?"

"Does... does the name Academia mean anything to you?" he asked instead of answering, because absolutely nothing was all right, but she didn't need to know that.

"Academia? No, I've never heard that name before. Why do you ask?"

When he looked down at her face, he was expecting to see the same curiosity as before. However, something had definitely changed; as if she had sensed the pain of every cruelty Academia had inflicted on him, on his people, this girl was staring at him with the most tender expression he'd seen in ages. Something inside of him broke, and it was all he could do to turn away before she saw it on his face.

"I'm sorry for troubling you," he told her with finality, intending it to be their farewell. He didn't realize she was still holding the edge of his cloak until he felt the tug of it caught on something, and he remembered her delicate fingers dancing on its worn edges, her features so completely different and yet somehow exactly the same as Ruri's. "Please let me go."

"I... I don't think this is a coincidence." Her voice rang out through the hazy murk, shaking the depths of his soul. "If LDS students hurt your friend, I... I want to know. I want to help. Please."

"You can't help!" he snapped at her, feeling the claws of darkness tearing into him again. There was something inside that yearned to _protect_ this girl from the truths of her world, another part that wanted to _trust_ her because she was right, this was definitely not a coincidence, and yet... another part of him felt so uneasy that he wanted to _destroy_ her and _flee_ and _hide_ until Shun came to find him again, covered in blood and whatever else, but he didn't want to _hurt_ her and it was all getting jumbled in his mind so much that he couldn't even tell if they were his own thoughts anymore.

"No, probably not by myself," she admitted softly, completely unaware of his state. "I don't know you, Yuuto, and I don't know your friend, only that she looks like me, and... she's been hurt by the same people, right?"

"No." He swallowed, hard. Her tone, her slow and steady choice of words – she was used to wheedling out people's problems when they really didn't want to share, wasn't she? It was a stark contrast to the words he'd heard her dish out towards the LDS students earlier, which only confirmed that she knew damn well what she was doing. Even if it was subconscious, she probably had her friend – what was his name, Yuuya? – wrapped around her little finger. "I came to this city to discover the truth. LDS has no apparent connection to Academia... to my enemy. I was under the assumption that they were one in the same, but I was mistaken. Your troubles and mine – they aren't related at all. I'm sorry for misleading you. Now let me go."

He felt his cloak settle at his feet, finally free of her grasp, but he couldn't will his legs to work. An uncomfortable silence fell between them, and it lasted for a while – he didn't keep track of the passing minutes, but he could hear the wind picking up outside along with the unmistakable wail of sirens in the distance.

"They must be coming to check out the explosion," the girl said, suddenly at his side again. "We should leave, or we might get in serious trouble."

He knew he could flee the scene as easily as he'd come, but she looked exhausted – likely worn out from a rush of adrenaline, maybe from the shock of experiencing Real Solid Vision outside the confines of the action fields provided by her world's current technology. And, truth be told, _he_ was worn out and down lower than he'd been in months after getting his hopes up about finding Ruri, and there was a tiny voice of wisdom that kept telling him that everything had led him here, to this girl's side, to an exact doppelganger of his dear friend for some reason greater than he could possibly understand in the moment.

"I... I didn't catch your name." He offered a quiet truce, hoping she'd take it as an apology.

"I'm Yuzu Hiiragi, but I think... given everything that just happened, you can call me Yuzu."

Yuuto wasn't sure what made him take her arm that night, but they fled the shipping yard together, a knight and the wrong goddamn princess. He helped her up onto a roof that let them bypass the fence entirely, and in turn she led him through the city streets, helping him navigate the unfamiliar territory and offering information about landmarks that he committed to memory as they strolled along, driven neither by fear nor necessity. She didn't pry about his identity or his past, but instead offered soft, encouraging smiles and more than enough chitchat to fill the awkward silences.

Whoever this Yuuya guy was, he had one hell of a good friend to depend on, he thought.

Even though they knew nothing about each other, Yuzu was intent on repaying the debt she'd earned "when he saved her," and as he was quick to learn, she was _not_ the type of girl to take no for an answer. Over the next few days, she let him borrow (or forced him to use) the showers and the laundry appliances at the duel school where her father taught, made sure he ate properly before she left for school and before she went home for the night, and even – after he finally spilled the truth about the ongoing dimensional war – gave him a spare key to the school's back gate and door "just in case the weather turned bad."

Laying on a comfortable couch, eating snack food out of the well-stocked cabinets, standing under a steady stream of hot water after prowling the city for answers during the daytime – it all felt so unreal after all the suffering he and his friends had endured for years. In fact, it felt more like a reverse fairy tale; maybe the princess saved her knight, and he was eternally grateful and swore in return to protect her. And maybe, when she kissed him for the first time, he'd already come to know her as much more than just Ruri's lookalike. And maybe he'd have to sort out his responsibilities and feelings later, once the war ended – he knew it couldn't last forever – but seeing her smile made him feel like he still had a reason to keep fighting against such immeasurable odds.

At least, until Sora Shiunin figured out where his friend was going every night, and things went to hell.


End file.
